Argentina Purging `Dirty War' Remnants

Other news to note - Caribbean & Latin America

February 16, 2000

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Just two months after taking office, President Fernando de la Rua has ordered a purge of the nation's military and civilian intelligence apparatus that will eliminate many of the last suspected participants of the notorious ``dirty war'' of the 1970s and 1980s from the government payroll. More than 1,500 military and civilian intelligence agents have been fired or forced to retire in recent days. The personnel changes have been promoted as cost-cutting and modernization efforts.